Objectives: Various memory tasks make substantially different demands on the learner. For example free recall makes far heavier retrieval demands than does recognition memory. The first of the proposed experiments will examine the extent to which relatively effective learners (college students) alter their memory-encoding activities to fit the different demands of free recall and recognition memory tasks, and will attempt to identify the nature and consequences of such modifications. Experiment II will extend this examination to children and adolescents in an effort to identify the course of development of strategies by which variations in task demands are met. Experiment III will concern the relationship of such strategies to SES and IQ. Experiment IV will study the effects of memory-encoding instructions on free recall and recognition memory performance of children identified as relatively ineffective learners. Further investigation of the modifiability of encoding activities through training is planned. Methods: In Experiment I college studients will be led to expect either free recall or recognition memory testing through pretraining. Common words then will be presented either (a) by the experimenter at a five-second rate, or (b) all together for free study for 160 seconds. Subjects then will be tested either for recall or for recognition memory, half the subjects receiving a test consistent with, and half a test inconsistent with task expectations. Self-report data on encoding activities also will be obtained. Task performance will be examined as a function of task expectancies (study instructions) and type of reported encoding strategy will be related to task expectancy and performance. Experiments II and III will employ similar designs, tasks, and procedures with school children. The subjects in Experiment II will be 3rd-, 6th-, and 10th-graders. In Experiment III the subjects will be school children varying in SES and IQ. In Experiment IV children receiving different encoding instructions will be compared in free recall and recognition memory.